° Forward Reverse Brake Ground detector lighis Fig. 10.2 Control circuit having ground detector lights ‘There are many locations on a machine where a ground ean oceur. However, there are a few spots in which grounds occur more often. These spots are discussed below: (1) Often ground fault occur in limit switehes, pressure switches, temperature switches, float switches etc. Most of the time this is due to the compact design of many compo- nents allowing very small space for making connections. Due to lack of space, bare conductors at terminals of a component may come in contact with the case of the component. Many times the cables/wires going to a component may get pulled and cause breakage or grounding of the wires. Control wires in eontrol panel can also get grounded in the panel itself or with an adjacent ground wire. (2) A ground may occur due to damaging of insulation while pulling control wires through a conduit, if proper care is not taken. Insulation damage may also oceur when there are several bends in the conductors, (3) A ground fault may also oceur due to improper use of a stranded conductor. Care must be taken while placing a stranded conductor into a connector. All strands must be used. One or two strands which have not been used may touch the case or a normally grounded conductor. Even if this does not happen, current carrying eapacity of the conductor gets reduced due to less number of strands in use 10.2.8 Momentary Faults Sometimes faults occur but do not persist for a long time. It becomes really difficult to locate the origin of such momentary faults. ‘The operator of the machine needs to keep a close observation to find out at which part of the eycle of control circuit operation the fault oceurs. When the part of the eycle at which the fault occurs is identified, the control cireuit pertaining to that portion needs to be checked thoroughly. If the fault occurs at random during the cycle then those components which are common for the whole eyele operation should be cheeked. Loose connection or a broken conductor inside the insulation can also be the cause of ‘momentary fault. Sometimes a control component may be malfunetioning. In case of doubt a component ean be replaced by a new one. If the machine is new, fault may already exist in the control circuit due to improper connection.10.2.9 Poor Maintenance If regular maintenance of a machine is not done the frequency of occurrence of faults will inerease. Regular maintenance also includes proper cleaning of machine and control panel. ‘The control panel door should be properly sealed so as not to allow dust and dirt to enter the panel. Though manufacturers of components have improved their product design so as to prevent. dust, dirt, and fluids entering inside the components, proper care should also be taken by the users. In large motor starters moving mechanical parts should be checked for loose pins and the bolts. Dust, dirt and grease should be removed from clectrical parts, otherwise short circuit, may develop. It is recommended that a regular maintenance schedule should be followed. History sheet of each individual machine should be maintained. In this history sheet details of all break-downs oceurring on machines and also details of preventive maintenance done should be noted. History sheet can be very useful to a supervisor in detecting fault in the machine 10.3 GENERAL PROCEDURE FOR TROUBLESHOOTING Firstly, we will consider a control circuit which has just been wired but is not working as per the design. The procedure for detecting fault in such a circuit is as follows: (1) The first step should be to analyse the control cireuit and ascertain that it has been properly designed as per the control function requirements; (2) The next step is to run the machine and follow the operation through the expected sequence until one finds the section of control cireuit which is not operating; (8) After locating the faulty section, wiring should be checked. If wiring is as per draw- ing then control components of this section should be checked thoroughly; (4) When trouble in the faulty section is located and removed, the machine should be started again to run successfully throughout the complete cycle. In case of fault ex- isting in any other section of the control cireuit, one should now try to locate the fault of that section, Secondly, we will study the troubleshooting procedure for an already existing circuit which was working properly before the occurrence of a fault. The possibility of improper connection therefore is eliminated. The procedure for troubleshooting in such a cireuit is as follows: (1) The first stop is to understand the operation and control cireuit of the machine. If the control circuit is very large and complex, help of the operator should be taken to find ‘out how much of the circuit is operating. In this way one can directly start with the section of the circuit that does not function. (2) When the faulty circuit section has been identified, first a careful check of the circuit, and components involved in that section should be done. A careful visual inspection may help to detect a faulty component or an open wiring. If nothing is found out in the visual inspection then the procedure may be as follows. (3) Find out which operation is not taking place and identify the contactor/solenoid valve coil which is responsible for this operation. Operate the machine and check whether there is voltage across the coil of relay or the contactor/solenoid valve coil. If proper voltage is available across the coil then trouble, most likely, is in the winding of the coil itself. Now, to check the continuity of coil, power is switched off and continuity of the coil is checked with an ohm meter. Ifthe coil is alright, a low resistance is indieated. Working of the contactor or solenoid valve should be checked before replacing the burnt coil. If it is suspected that contactor closing mechanism or solenoid valve is defective, a new contactor or a new solenoid valve should be installed.(4) Suppose that in the step discussed above voltage is found to be not reaching the contactor coil. This indicates that some contact is not closing when it should, thus disconnecting supply to the coil. In such a case control circuit drawing should be referred, to find out components whose contacts should close to energise the coil. These contacts may be of different relays, limit switches, pressure switches, tem- perature and float switches etc. Now the task will be to determine which of the com- ponents connected in series is not making contact, (5) To find out contact of which particular component is not making, supply should be checked at various points leading to the contactor coil. Here, note that difficulties may be faced in checking if limit switches, pressure switches etc. which are on the machine are wired directly in the control circuit. If, however, relays are energised through limit switches etc., and then contacts of these relays are used in control cireuit, checking will become easier. This point has already been explained in Chap- tor 2 while discussing relays. Onee the defective component is detected then the cause of malfunctioning can be found out. If the contact is not making due to a cop- per oxide film or dirt, eloaning should be done and if contact is not closing properly, adjustment. can be done. If, contact is badly pitted it should be replaced. The other possibility during this checking can be detection of open circuit due to a broken or burnt wire (6) Having climinated the fault, the machine should be started again and if the machine does not operate successfully throughout the complete cycle of operation, the above procedure should again be applied to the next section of the control circuit which is faulty. (7) Quite frequently, grounding of a wire going from control panel to the machine may be the cause of trouble, A check should be made for detection of ground fault, by putting off the power supply. Resistance to ground of the wires should be checked with an ohm meter, or alternatively, a test lamp can be used to detect ground, where 230 V supply with neutral earth is available. ‘To check ground, one side of test lamp is eonnected to phase wire while the other end is connected to the wire which is to be tested for ground. If the wire is grounded the lamp will glow, otherwise it will remain off. This is shown in Fig. 10.3. Lamp giows in E_6 — case aroun tou Fy ° ¥ ° Fig, 10.3 Detection of ground fault using a test lamp The above procedure of fault detection is based on the fact that control circuits are made up basically of only two things viz., contacts which make and break the circuit, and relay coils which operate these contacts. If the contaets open and close as they should, then proper voltage gels applied to the coils or the evils get de-energised, as desired, The fault can thus lie with thecontacts, relay/eontactor eoils, or the associated wires which earry eurrent through the contacts to the coil One improtant rule to be observed while troubleshooting is to attend to only one thing at a time. If you suspect that a contact is malfunctioning, first correct this contact and then check machine operation. If fault persists then proceed to cheek other suspected possible trouble spots. It is very seldom that several parts of a machine would wear out at the same instant even though their condition may be poor. Tempering with more than one component at a time may introduce more trouble than original trouble. In order that the procedure outlined above for troubleshooting becomes clear, we will determine probable causes of some troubles which ‘we will assume to have occurred in the circuit. The circuit is a simple control of an air compressor motor chown in Fig. 10.4, Re Cont ON Cooling ‘Comp motor water pump ‘contactor Fig. 10.4 Control diagram for an air compressor motor In this circuit CR is control relay, 1M is cooling water pump motor contactor, 2M is, compressor motor starter contactor. Oil lubrication pressure switches, cooling water temperature switch, and cooling water flow switch energise relays 1P, 7, and F. Contacts of these relay are used in the starting cireuit of the compressor motor contactor 2M. Brief description about working of circuit is that when control relay CR is energised by pressing contro] ON-push button, relay CR closes and is held through its contact CR,. Its contact CR, also closes and energies terminal 4. Cooling water pump starts due to energisation of contactor 1M (Remember cooling water pump circulates cold water for cooling the compressor). Compressor motor contactor 2M can be energised by pressing START-push button. Contactor 2M gets energised if contact 1M,, 7, and F, are in closed condition. When 2M is energised,compressor motor starts and lubrication oil pressure also starts building up as the oil pump is coupled with the main compressor motor. If sufficient pressure builds up, oil lubrication pressure switch 1P closes and energises relay 1P. Contact 1P, of this relay closes across the START- push button and contactor 2M is held through contact LP, START-push button has to be kept pressed till contact LP1 closes. Having understood the working of the circuit, we will now discuss detection of some troubles assumed to have oceurred in the circuit: (1) Suppose that the trouble reported by operator is that the control circuit is not fane- tioning. This will also be indicated by non-glowing of ‘control ON’ indication lamp. First of all, by visual inspection cheek if the control rolay CR is closed. If found closed, then check supply at terminal 4. If there is no supply then contact CR, is not making contact. Take action to rectify defects in the contact. If on visual inspection, relay CR is found to be de-energised, then press control ON-push button and cheek supply across the coil. If full voltage is available then fault lies in the coil. Disconnect the coil and check its continuity. If the coil is found burnt replace it after checking the relay. In the previous cheek, with the ON-push button pressed, if'no voltage is found avail- able across the coil ie., at terminal 3 with respect to neutral 0, then proceed to check voltage at terminal 2, If voltage is available at terminal 2, it would mean that control ON-push button is not making contact on being pressed. Replace the contact block to rectify the fault. If, however, supply is not available at terminal 2, fault may be there in the OFF-push button, its NC contact may not be making contact. If during this checking no supply is detected upto terminal 1, then it would mean that the control fuse is blown. Check the control fuse. The control fuse may get blown due to fault in any part of the whole control circuit, Fuse can blow due to any eoil getting shorted as a result of burning or due to grounding of any wire. If control fuse is blown, proceed as follows to detect the fault, To detect the trouble spot for fuse blowing, first one has to find out the section in which fault exists. Ifthe fuse is getting blown before the compressor motor has started, the possibility of fault lying beyond terminal 11 is ruled out. Now remove all the wires marked number four (4) from the contactor strip and check with the help of an ‘ohm meter or test lamp each individual wire for a ground. Suppose wire no, 4 going to cooling water temperature switch is showing ground then cheek for any physical damage to the wire going from panel to the switch, Also check the switeh as wire may be getting ground by touching the ease of the switch, (2) Another problem with control relay may be that it does not remain energised when the ON-push button is released. For this, check if any wire is open at contact CR, of the relay. If wires are found connected properly then the problem, most probably, is with the contact CR,. This contact may not be making due to oxide film or dust and dirt ete, It may also need adjustment or replacement, (3) Another problem could be that the compressor motor fails to start when the START- push button is pressed. First step should be to check visually in the control panel the condition of relays T, F and 1M. 1M should be closed while T and F should be open. ‘Suppose the relay 7'is found closed, it would mean that the cooling water tempera- ture switch is actuated. It should be found out whether the temperature switeh is malfunetioning or whether the temperature of the cooling water has actually in- creased. If the temperature switch is defective it should be replaced. If cooling water temperature had increased find out the cause and remove it, Fault may be in the compressor itself, or perhaps the inlet water temperature is already high.